A key one is geographic. Gaza is not just an "enclave between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea," as is often incompletely described. It has a border with Egypt too. This is important because Egypt — as a fellow Arab Muslim country — is certainly in a position to help Gazans who are suffering way too much. So why isn’t Egypt doing this?

There are many answers, but among them are that the Gazans, in 2006, voted in Hamas. Since then Hamas continually threatens its neighbors with terror and attacks, rules the Gazans with severe repression, allows no freedom of dissent, imprisons and kills anyone who criticizes them, and severely curtails rights for women and gays. In the meantime, Hamas leaders are looting the country and shifting assets to themselves, banked in overseas accounts.

Sadly, the net result of all this is that too many Gazan people are caught in an impossible situation. Any consideration to help them must take these points into account.